How Should I Spend My Time?

The way I do it—and it's the only biblical way I know, though I'm not as good at it as I'd like to be—is to experience what Romans 12:2 says: "Do not be conformed"—today, this afternoon, in your priorities and choices—"to this age, but be transformed in the renewing of your mind, so that you can prove what is the will of God."

So as I face all the decisions of today, how will I have a spiritual taste bud so that I can taste what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable and perfect? And the answer that the Bible gives is, "Get a transformed mind."

So we labor in the word and in prayer not just to figure out lists of deeds that are more or less acceptable, but we labor to get a mind that thinks and feels about things the way Christ does. So that when a phone call comes in, or an opportunity to go somewhere arises, or we have to chose this or that, there is something about our minds that discerns where Christ would be magnified, where faith would be built, and where people would be loved.

What's remarkable is that there are people who have very little capacity to articulate formal theology who have really good taste buds when it comes to holiness and love. They seem to be able to discern in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, what word would be most helpful and what action would be most edifying. And if you were to ask them, "Now why did you do that?" they wouldn't be able to give you an articulate long explanation. They intuited it, only it's a spiritual intuition, not just a consulting of a list.

And that's what we want. We want to get up in the morning, go to the word, go to prayer, and advance the transformation of our minds.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.

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